Migration Policy Institute Podcasts

Responding to Early Childhood Education and Care Needs of Children of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Europe and North America

As asylum seekers and refugees have arrived in significant numbers in Europe and North America in recent years, many countries have struggled to address the newcomers’ basic reception needs and provide effective integration services. Young children comprise a substantial share of these arrivals, and many have experienced significant trauma and stress that pose serious risks to their cognitive, psychosocial, and physical development. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs present an important opportunity to mitigate many risks these children may face, improving their education trajectories and supporting longer-term success. They can also play a critical role in the integration of refugee parents and families more broadly. In many countries, however, services for young refugee children are highly limited and lack the capacity to meet their learning and development needs.
This webinar marks the release of an Migration Policy Institute report examining the challenges and successes major host countries in Europe and North America are experiencing in providing high-quality ECEC services. The report draws on fieldwork conducted in nine countries: Belgium, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States. It is an initiative of the Transatlantic Forum on Inclusive Early Years, a consortium of European and U.S. foundations convened by the Brussels-based King Baudouin Foundation.
During the webinar, authors, Maki Park and Margie McHugh discuss the report’s findings, highlighting promising policies and practices identified in field research, as well as key areas in which ECEC services for this population need to be strengthened. They are joined by Anna Österlund, from the Swedish National Agency for Education, who highlights innovative national and local policies in Sweden that support young refugee children in their early learning experiences.

Family Immigration Policy and Trends: How the United States Compares to Other Countries

All immigrant-receiving countries grapple with the rights and requirements surrounding family reunification and how to balance them with other immigration priorities. 
Deciding which family members should be eligible to join their relatives in the United States, and under what conditions, has become a hot button political issue. The Trump administration has proposed restricting family-based immigration severely, prompting a wave of responses arguing that family-based immigration should remain at the heart of the U.S. immigration system. On this webinar, MPI analysts Julia Gelatt, Kate Hooper, and Demetrios G. Papademetriou, compare U.S. policy on family migration to that of other significant immigrant-receiving countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Specifically, do these countries define "family" for the purpose of immigrant admissions and how does the proportion of family admissions compare to the other admission streams, especially to the admissions of the economic/labor market stream? This conversation, moderated by MPI Senior Fellow and Director of MPI's U.S. Immigration Policy Program Doris Meissner, highlights findings from MPI's issue brief examining family migration trends in nine countries and marks the launch of a data tool that models potential U.S. legal immigration cuts, by category and top countries. 

Supporting DLLs in Superdiverse PreK-3 Programs: Findings from Two Studies

Across many early childhood education and care (ECEC) and K-12 school systems in the United States, the diversity of languages spoken, countries of origin, and other characteristics of the young child population is rapidly rising. An increasing number of communities in the United States are experiencing conditions of “superdiversity,” creating learning environments that require different instructional strategies and approaches than those used in more homogeneous or bilingual settings to support Dual Language Learners’ access to high-quality early childhood services that can support their healthy development and future academic success.
This webinar marks the release of two research reports that illustrate the challenges and opportunities related to teaching and learning in a superdiverse environment, pointing to promising approaches to work effectively in multilingual, multicultural classrooms. The reports focus on patterns of home language use across different ECEC program types, and the potential of the Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL) model to improve instruction and outcomes for Dual Language Learners in superdiverse settings. During the webinar, authors present findings and highlights from their work, and key implications for policy and practice will be discussed.
The reports discussed are:
The Language of the Classroom: Dual Language Learners in Head Start, Public Pre-K, and Private Preschool Programs
Supporting Dual Language Learner Success in Superdiverse PreK-3 Classrooms: The Sobrato Early Academic Language Model
 

Immigration Data Matters: How to Find the Most Accurate Resources

With immigration increasingly visible in the news and the political space in the United States and internationally, getting access to accurate, high-quality data is essential for publics and policymakers to understand immigration’s demographic effects and impacts on the economy, education and labor systems, and the communities in which immigrants and their families live and work.
This event marks the release of an updated version of the popular Immigration Data Matters guide, which directs users to more than 220 international and U.S. data sources, and explains how to navigate sometimes complex datasets issued by government statistical agencies, international organizations, and reputable research organizations. This handy online guide includes data sources covering everything from the size of foreign-born population stocks and flows to citizenship applications, children in immigrant families, refugee admissions, migrant deaths, international student enrollment, global remittance flows, enforcement activities, and much more. 
At a time of proliferating data sources on immigration and immigrants, the presenters (Jeanne Batalova, MPI Senior Policy Analyst and Data Hub Manager, MPI; Mark Mather, Population Reference Bureau Associate Vice President for U.S. Programs; Elizabeth M. Grieco, Pew Research Center Senior Writer/Editor and former U.S. Census Bureau Foreign-Born Population Branch Chief; and Marc Rosenblum, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director of the Office of Immigration Statistics at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security) discuss where some of the most user-friendly data can be accessed, including MPI’s own Migration Data Hub. They share their insights on how to avoid common pitfalls in using existing immigration data and highlight relevant data sources available from international organizations and national governments, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  

State and Local Labor Standards Enforcement in Immigrant-Dense Industries

Immigrants, who account for 17 percent of the U.S. labor force, are twice as likely as native-born workers to work in industries where core labor and safety standard violations are widespread. Many immigrants have been driven into low-wage, under-regulated work by a confluence of immigration policies and economic transformations in which companies now routinely contract out for their labor needs, such as occurs in the cleaning, warehousing, food preparation, construction, and transportation sectors. In these sectors, it is commonplace for employers to misclassify workers as independent contractors to avoid paying employer-related taxes and workers compensation, and to evade responsibility for compliance with labor standards. Pushing back against the deterioration of labor standards in these sectors requires robust and strategic enforcement, but both government and private-sector driven enforcement are stymied by limited resources and disincentives for workers to file complaints.
State and local governments, with their broad enforcement powers, access to tax and insurance data, and their role in regulating unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation, are uniquely positioned to respond. As a Migration Policy Institute report outlines, state innovations in enforcement can benefit both native-born and immigrant workers alike, increase state tax revenue, and level competition in the marketplace for law-abiding employers. However, since states also contend with limited resources, strategic enforcement of workplace statutes that change employer behavior is key. 
At this report release discussion, the authors, Muzaffar Chishti, Director, MPI's office at New York University (NYU) School of Law, and Andrew Elmore, NYU School of Law Acting Assistant Professor and former New York Office of Attorney General Labor Bureau Section Chief, discuss the dynamics in low-wage workplaces and immigration law that have contributed to systematic violations of labor standards. They also highlight the new and effective enforcement strategies that state and local governments across the United States are utilizing. And California Labor Commissioner Julie Su and Tennessee Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Administrator Abbie Hudgens discuss how they have leveraged existing resources to more effectively enforce labor laws. 
 

Effectively Serving Children in a Superdiverse Classroom: Implications for the Early Education System

As the number and share of Dual Language Learners (DLLs) continues to grow across the United States, diversity within this population is also increasing. Although Spanish remains the most commonly spoken language among DLL families in most states, other minority languages have substantial representation in many school districts, cities, and counties. DLLs also span a wide range of races and ethnicities, countries of origin, levels of education, and migration histories. This “superdiversity” has important implications for early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs, schools, and other systems that face the challenge of building the capacity to effectively serve children with unique learning strengths and needs. And while a strong research base has proven the benefits of bilingual education models in supporting DLLs’ academic development, much less is known about effective strategies to serve these children in classrooms where multiple languages and cultures are represented, and no single non-English language is dominant.
This webinar marks the release of a Migration Policy Institute report that provides an analysis of the diversity within the DLL population nationwide and at the state and local levels. The report also offers a closer look at three rapidly growing subgroups within the DLL population: Black and Asian American and Pacific Islander DLLs and young children of refugees. This is the first in a series of three reports that will explore the implications of superdiverse contexts for ECEC programs and systems.
On the webinar, authors of the report, Maki Park and Jie Zong, provide an overview of its findings and policy implications. This was followed by reflections from KaYing Yang, Director of Programs and Partnerships at the Coalition of Asian American Leaders in Minnesota, who discussed on-the-ground challenges and responses related to early learning service provision in superdiverse settings. 

Can New Digital and Pedagogical Innovations Help Bridge Education Gaps for Migrant Children?

The arrival of hundreds of thousands of children during the migration crisis exacerbated existing structural limitations in how school systems support children with migrant backgrounds, including insufficient teacher capacity and training, and underdeveloped systems for identifying and diagnosing needs. Faced with rising levels of language learners in their classrooms, some schools have turned to innovations in technology and pedagogy—such as personalized learning and differentiated instruction, translation software, ‘flipped’ classrooms, and massive open online courses (MOOCs)—to support teachers and help diverse learners keep up.
Do these innovations represent new solutions, partial supports, or a distraction from the broader challenges of supporting diverse learners? How can educators and integration policymakers use these tools to improve the outcomes for the most disadvantaged students, without widening existing inequalities? And what are the broader structural reforms needed to rethink the way that schools are designed, operated, and staffed to update education systems for diverse populations?
This Migration Policy Institute Europe webinar considers what the future of education might hold for diverse learners. It marks the release of a report, Mainstreaming 2.0: How Europe’s Education Systems Can Boost Migrant Inclusion, produced in the framework of its Integration Futures Working Group. 
Speakers included: 
Thomas Huddleston, Programme Director, Migration and Integration, Migration Policy Group; Coordinator, Steering Committee, SIRIUS Network  
Allan Kjær Andersen, Principal, Ørestad Gymnasium, Denmark
Margarida Rodrigues, Research Fellow, Joint Research Centre, European Commission
Aliyyah Ahad, Associate Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute Europe

Migration in Europe: What Trends to Watch in 2018?

Is 2018 the year that the European Union takes leadership on migration on the international stage, or where it focuses inwards on healing internal divisions and delivering on overdue migration and asylum system reforms? With two high-profile compacts on migration and refugees being negotiated by the United Nations, Europe can potentially seize the momentum to shape a new international migration framework—and fill the vacuum left by the United States’ withdrawal. But with a series of critical elections across the continent, and key states struggling to form coalition governments, Europe’s ability to set the agenda may be limited. Europe may need to first get its own house in order, passing reforms to the Dublin Regulations, hammering down citizens’ rights post-Brexit, and designing strategic legal pathways, to name a few. This webinar looks ahead at the major external and internal events affecting migration on the continent over the next year.
Speakers include:
Elizabeth Collett, Director, Migration Policy Institute Europe
Milan Nič, Senior Fellow, Robert Bosch Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, German Council on Foreign Relations
Pierre Vimont, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Europe 
And moderated by:  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Associate Director, International Program, Migration Policy Institute

The State of the World on Migration – Vitorino & Papademetriou Discuss Challenges, Opportunities Ahead

Across the globe, the mobility of people has become a complex, multilayered phenomenon that no government can manage effectively in isolation. This is no more starkly evident than in Europe. But even as nativism and various forms of nationalism have become seemingly permanent features of European electoral politics, EU Member States are attempting to intensify cooperation on migration matters within Europe, as well as with key countries in Africa and beyond. Europe is not alone in the search for practical answers to migration and its many consequences. Every region of the world is undergoing rapid change and seeking to create governance structures capable of responding effectively to the challenges and opportunities presented by migration. While contexts and priorities differ vastly, the need for some common understanding amongst states as to how migration should be managed in the future is now a top item on the political agenda.
 
This MPI Europe discussion brings together two of the most experienced thinkers on migration policy— António Vitorino and Demetrios G. Papademetriou—to discuss these matters and explore what will be needed over the next years to ensure that the properly managed movement of people remains an integral, positive force in the world.
 
Vitorino, former Deputy Prime Minister of Portugal and former European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, was a key architect of European collaboration on migration. He is now the Portuguese candidate to become Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Papademetriou is the founder of MPI Europe and served as its President until the end of 2017. He has also served as Chair of the World Economic Forum’s global migration task force and the migration group for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and has written extensively and advised senior policymakers in dozens of countries. This timely discussion is introduced by MPI Europe Director Elizabeth Collett.

Conference - Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion Final Session - From Niche to Mainstream: Unlocking the Potential of Innovation for Lasting Change

Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many non-traditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—have pioneered innovative solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. In the context of this experimentation, business has played a fundamental role, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic leveraging their potential as employers, donors, and partners in innovative alliances. This two-day conference reflected on how innovative initiatives for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change. The event brought together a diverse group of public officials, business leaders, service designers, social entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, and refugee initiatives from Europe, the United States, and Canada.
The final interactive panel session “From Niche to Mainstream: Unlocking the Potential of Innovation for Lasting Change” included contributions from:
Chair: Elizabeth Collett, Director, Migration Policy Institute Europe
Louisa Taylor, Director, Refugee 613, Canada 
Ben Mason, Project lead on digital innovation around refugees and migration, Betterplace lab, Germany
David Manicom, Assistant Deputy Minister, Settlement and Integration Sector, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Laura Corrado, Head of Unit Legal Migration and Integration, DG HOME, European Commission

Conference - Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion Workshop - Employer Engagement: Innovative Approaches to Training and Hiring Refugees

Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many non-traditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—have pioneered innovative solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. In the context of this experimentation, business has played a fundamental role, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic leveraging their potential as employers, donors, and partners in innovative alliances. This two-day conference reflected on how innovative initiatives for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change. The event brought together a diverse group of public officials, business leaders, service designers, social entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, and refugee initiatives from Europe, the United States, and Canada.
This workshop on Employer Engagement: Innovative Approaches to Training and Hiring Refugees featured:  
Chair: Laurent Aujean, Policy Officer, Unit Legal Migration and Integration, DG Home, European Commission
Sayre Nyce, Executive Director, Talent Beyond Boundaries, United States
Peter O’Sullivan, Resettlement Officer, UNHCR, Bureau for Europe
Mustafa Alroomi, Web Developer & Askim Kintziger, Innovation Consultant, Cronos Groep, Belgium

Conference - Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion - Opening Session Day II: Refugees as agents of innovation

Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many non-traditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—have pioneered innovative solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. In the context of this experimentation, business has played a fundamental role, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic leveraging their potential as employers, donors, and partners in innovative alliances. This two-day conference reflected on how innovative initiatives for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change. The event brought together a diverse group of public officials, business leaders, service designers, social entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, and refugee initiatives from Europe, the United States, and Canada.
In the opening session on the second day of the conference, Maher Ismaail, DaliliNow.com Co-founder and Saeed Kamali Dehghan, a journalist from The Guardian, engaged in a discussion on refugees as agents of innovation. 

Conference - Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion Panel II: Business, not as usual - Private sector innovation for refugee inclusion

Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many non-traditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—have pioneered innovative solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. In the context of this experimentation, business has played a fundamental role, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic leveraging their potential as employers, donors, and partners in innovative alliances. This two-day conference reflected on how innovative initiatives for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change. The event brought together a diverse group of public officials, business leaders, service designers, social entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, and refugee initiatives from Europe, the United States, and Canada.
This panel is entitled "Business, not as usual: Private sector innovation for refugee inclusion”, and the speakers are:
Chair: Irini Pari, European Economic and Social Committee
Pastora Valero, Vice President, Government Affairs, EMEAR, Cisco
Justina Spencer, Manager, Global Corporate Responsibility, Deloitte
Samuel Engblom, Policy Director, TCO Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees, Sweden
Kavita Brahmbhatt, Co-founder, Action Emploi Réfugiés, France

Conference - Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion: Welcoming remarks, Opening Speech, & Panel session "How the field has matured: A progress report, one year on"

Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many non-traditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—have pioneered innovative solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. In the context of this experimentation, business has played a fundamental role, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic leveraging their potential as employers, donors, and partners in innovative alliances. This two-day conference reflected on how innovative initiatives for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change. The event brought together a diverse group of public officials, business leaders, service designers, social entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, and refugee initiatives from Europe, the United States, and Canada.
This recording includes:
Welcoming remarks from:
Adam Shub, Chargé d’Affaires, U.S. Mission to the EU
Daniel J. Costello, Ambassador of Canada to the EU
Elizabeth Collett, Director, Migration Policy Institute Europe
Cristian Pirvulescu, President of the Permanent Study Group on Immigration and Integration, European Economic and Social Committee
Opening speech by Yara Al Adib, Design Consultant and Entrepreneur, From Syria with Love, Belgium
Panel session: “How the field has matured: A progress report, one year on”
Chair: Tamim Nashed, Policy Officer on Refugee Inclusion, European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)
Eric Young, The Social Projects Studio/Distinguished Visiting Professor of Social Innovation at Ryerson University, Canada
Luisa Seiler, Co-founder and Director, SINGA Deutschland, Germany
Mireia Nadal Chiva, Head of Community Development, ReDI School for Digital Integration, Germany

Beyond Stock-Taking: The Path Ahead to a Global Compact for Migration

Representatives of national governments, UN agencies, and key civil-society organizations convened in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at the beginning of December 2017 to take stock of the progress that has been made towards conceptualizing the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM). Formal negotiations are scheduled to begin in 2018 to fulfill the commitment made at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2016 by Member States to negotiate a Global Compact for Migration by the end of 2018—a task that was complicated with the decision by the Trump administration to withdraw from the further consultations.
To reflect on the latest developments and the outcomes of the stocktaking meeting, MPI hosted discussion with Eva Åkerman Börje, Senior Policy Advisor in the office of the UN Special Representative for International Migration, and Ilse Hahn, Head of Division on Policy Issues of Displacement and Migration, from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The discussion, moderated by MPI Senior Fellow Kathleen Newland, also drew from the conclusions of MPI's policy brief, The Global Compact for Migration: How Does Development Fit In?
This webinar is part of a project, "Towards a Global Compact for Migration: Rethinking the Links between Migration and Development", by MPI and the German Development Cooperation Agency (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, or GIZ), supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 2018, the project will issue a series of policy briefs aimed at enriching the conversation around migration and development in the context of the Global Compact negotiations.

Life Beyond Brexit: How Are Negotiations Faring Over Rights for UK Citizens in the European Union?

Brexit negotiators have made the rights of EU nationals in the United Kingdom and UK nationals in the European Union a priority in the ongoing talks in 2017, but progress has been painfully slow. A number of sticking points still need to be resolved, including the looming question of whether the European Court of Justice will continue to adjudicate the rights of EU nationals in the United Kingdom. And there is still a risk that negotiations on other topics—such as the bill the United Kingdom will owe when it leaves the European Union—will derail the overall deal. 
 
As the European Council gears up to move onto the next phase of negotiations (which will look at the future relationship between the European Union and United Kingdom), this Migration Policy Institute Europe webinar marks the release of an MPI Europe report that offers a demographic profile of the approximately 1 million UK citizens living in the European Union and examines the ways in which many are likely to see their futures significantly reshaped after Brexit. The discussion -- with European Commission Task Force for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom under Article 50 Legal and Policy Officer Marie Simonsen, European Citizen Action Service Director Assya Kavrakova, Financial Times Brussels Bureau Chief Alex Barker, and MPI report author Meghan Benton -- takes stock of citizens' rights, reflects on what may happen next, and considers the prospects for Britons abroad both in a situation of ‘no deal’ and if there is an ultimate agreement. Which groups are likely to be vulnerable to losing legal status or access to benefits and services following Brexit? What are the other main challenges and concerns that the UK population is facing, such as access to health care or the labour market? What are the prospects for a deal, and what are the main points of disagreement?

How Are School Systems Responding to the Needs of Immigrants, Refugees, and Unaccompanied Minors?

This webinar marks the release of a Migration Policy Institute report that explores some of the responses made by school districts to bring immigrant and refugee newcomer students up to speed in English and basic academic skills, all while focused on the educational system’s ultimate goal of high school completion with the skills necessary for today’s college and career demands. During the webinar, the author, Julie Sugarman, summarizes findings based on insights from interviews and activities conducted for MPI’s Learning Network for Newcomer Youth Success, a private network that brings together administrators and practitioners in the education, social services, and health and mental health fields who are engaged in providing services to immigrant and refugee newcomers ages 12 to 21. The discussion focuses on how schools create and expand systems around the identification of students’ immediate and ongoing academic and socioemotional needs, and how they design programs and curricular pathways to balance these needs with state policy constraints.
 
Also in this webinar, two practitioners illustrate specific responses to serving newcomer youth. Nicole Mitchell discusses the efforts of Los Angeles Unified School District's School Enrollment Placement & Assessment Center to address the academic and socioemotional needs of incoming newcomer students. Marguerite Lukes discusses how educators in schools supported by the Internationals Network for Public Schools create systemic supports, such as team teaching, to ensure quality instruction for ELs.

Are States Recognizing and Responding to the Needs of Their Dual Language Learner Children?

Dual Language Learners (DLLs) now make up nearly one-third of all children ages 8 and under in the United States. Despite many strengths that these young children and their parents possess, the DLL population faces significant risk factors. And although DLLs stand to benefit disproportionately from high-quality early learning opportunities, they are significantly less likely than their native, English-only peers to be enrolled in pre-K programs.
 
The Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy on October 12 released a set of state and national demographic and policy profiles to highlight characteristics of DLLs and their families and the policy context they encounter in state early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems. This series, with profiles for the United States and 30 states, aims to provide stakeholders with an understanding of the substantial and growing DLL population across the United States and the level of program and policy responsiveness by states to the needs of these young children.
 
In this webinar, MPI analysts outline key findings from the national demographic and policy profile and discuss their implications for ECEC programs and systems that seek to provide equitable access and quality for DLLs and support them in building a strong foundation for their future success.
 
The fact sheet series discussed in this webinar is available here: https://t.co/X7HtuxBlPI

Legal Channels for Refugee Protection in Europe: A Pivotal Moment for Strategic Thinking

The European Union has long acknowledged the crucial role for new and expanded legal pathways in creating a well-managed migration system. Yet to date, there has been a lack of common understanding among Member States on how legal pathways can and should be used, how different channels fit together to achieve migration objectives, or what is meant by commonly used concepts, such as humanitarian visas. The refugee and migration crisis thrust the issue of legal pathways to the top of EU and national government agendas, bringing with it new energy for innovation and action; but progress has so far suffered from a lack of strategic thinking on how legal channels can work together and how to overcome the design and implementation challenges Member States have faced.
 
Following the recently released mid-term review of the European Agenda on Migration, this timely webinar offers insights from EU Member States on how existing, new, and untapped legal pathways—such as resettlement, community-based sponsorship, and family reunification—can interact with other humanitarian policies and fit into a larger protection strategy.
 
The publications discussed in this webinar are:
Tracing the channels refugees use to seek protection in Europe: http://bit.ly/2w3YMId
Engaging communities in refugee protection: The potential of private sponsorship in Europe: http://bit.ly/2xs188Y

2017 Immigration Law and Policy Conference – Panel: A Standoff on Immigration Enforcement: Federal vs. Local, State vs. State, State vs. Local

In a highly polarized atmosphere on immigration where federal lawmakers are largely paralyzed on policy change, states and localities in recent years have increasingly taken on a larger role in challenging Washington’s immigration authority. With the Trump administration focused on cracking down on “sanctuary” cities and enticing law enforcement agencies to take a greater role in immigration enforcement, politicians and policymakers in communities across the United States are lining up on opposing sides of the issue. Even as some states and cities are declaring themselves sanctuaries, others are rushing to bar jurisdictions from noncooperation with federal immigration authorities. In this panel, the President of the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the President of the National Sheriffs’ Association discuss immigration enforcement on a panel with immigration attorneys. Themes include the growing patchwork of stances on immigration from states, counties, cities, and even universities and local school boards; what is driving the pattern of increasingly active and litigious states in the immigration space; what the legal landscape is for state/local action; and how the administration may seek to further engage state and local jurisdictions in immigration enforcement.